Fairytail by the Sea
by Mitzia
Summary: When Yuuri was a child, he nearly drowned on the beach of Hasetsu. Nearly. Although no one believed him, a mermaid by the name of Victor rescued him and disappeared from his life. Years later, Yuuri returns to Hasetsu to find that the mythical creature wasn't so mythical as his peers once believed him to be. Warning! Yaoi Lemon and Character Death ahead


There was nothing special about that day as a whole. The sun was out, the temperature was nicely high without being scorching hot, and the younger citizens of the town were doing whatever they wanted at the beachfront. Families played games and others relaxed on towels, reading or listening to music. Couples splashed each other in the water and looked to be having the time of their lives. It looked liked something out of some B-rated teen movie. But, this was home and it didn't need to be more than that.

Mari, who was slightly older than Yuuri at the time, played along with whatever he wanted as he switched from activity to activity like a butterfly. She wanted to have a bit of fun too since her friends were all busy with their families that day and spending time with her baby brother wasn't a terrible idea.

"Nee-chan, I wanna swim!" a seven-year-old Yuuri shouted from where he was collecting sea shells. The two had previously decided they'd have a competition to find the prettiest shell in the sand as a present for their mother who loved the sea. Looks like he got tired of this after giving his mother ten different shells of varying sizes.

"Yuuri, you know you can't swim in the ocean just yet. You'll get swept away by the scary sea monsters," Mari smiled. Yuuri shivered at the thought of some big, seaweed-covered beast walking onto the sand and taking him away to who knows where. Scaring him was too easy sometimes, she thought.

"I-I'm not s-scared!" Yuuri muttered, his composure showing a complete 180 difference to what he said.

Mari put a finger on her chin and smirked evilly. "Really? Well, if you're not scared, then let's go."

His chestnut eyes lit up and he nodded vigorously before clutching her hand. She led the way as she wondered how he could be moments away from pissing himself to undeniably enthusiastic in less than a second. "He'll be growing up sooner than I'll know it," she thought to herself.

She picked a spot right next to the dock so he'd have something to hold onto if he decided to get into the water. The sea here was pretty shallow - even at Yuuri's height - so she hoped she wouldn't need to see her brother almost drown accidently. Sitting on the edge with her feet in the water, she watched as Yuuri inched closer to the waves washing up by the sand.

He held out his pinky toe and flinched when the wave barely touched it. "Ah! Nee-chan, it's freezing!" he whined.

"Duh, it's the ocean," she said unsympathetically.

Yuuri pouted at the lack of comfort from his sister and took a deep breath before taking a few steps further. He puffed up his bare chest and clenched his fist as he stomped through the wet sand. The waves engulfed his ankles and made him scream and Mari laugh. Yuuri ran back to the sand that couldn't be touched by the low waves and shivered. "You're such a baby, Yuuri," she teased.

"Am not! I jus-"

"Mari! Yuuri! It's time to eat lunch!" their mother called from the blanket their parents were seated on.

"Coming!" Mari called back.

"But if I eat, then I can't go swimming," Yuuri mumbled. Mari looked at the defeated look in his eyes and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, I'll bring some food over here so I can watch you swim and then you'll eat when you finish. Does that sound good?" Mari proposed.

The little spark returned to his eyes and he tightly hugged her around the waist. "You're the best, Nee-chan!" he cheered.

"Alright, alright, back off. Stay here, I'll be right back, okay?" Yuuri nodded as he watched his sister run over towards the rest of the family.

"Yay! Swimming, swimming!" he chanted as he ran further towards the sea. With his legs in the water, he was now more used to the temperature and allowed himself to go further and further until he had to hold onto the side of the dock to stay afloat. He held the dock with both of his hands and maneuvered his legs to go towards the edge of the dock. He looked down and could barely see the sand, making a mental note to hold the wood extra hard.

Using one hand to keep him steady, Yuuri ducked his head under the water and enjoyed the feeling of being submerged in it. His limbs floated around him and it felt like the whole world had stopped. There was nothing besides him and the motions of the sea. He opened his eyes and saw the sunlight being captured and distorted in the ocean waves. Holding his breath made the motions within his body more apparent and he could feel his heartbeat resonate throughout his body.

"So this is what life feels like..."

He had been under for about a minute and his body signaled to recharge on oxygen. Just as Yuuri brought his head back to the surface for air, he stared face-to-face with an oncoming tide. Giving no time to react, the wave crashed into Yuuri and his grip on the wooden dock shattered. His lungs were only half-filled before he was hit and panic began to quickly set in. He couldn't open his eyes to see where his flailing limbs were taking him because he was too scared. He was too scared to even understand what was happening. Instinct took over, but it wasn't enough combined with his body not knowing how to swim.

His chest began to feel heavy and empty with his lungs seeking more oxygen. "Don't breathe, don't breathe," he chanted in his head, but it wasn't enough.

His mouth opened underwater and so did his eyes at the last second. Before the world faded to black, he saw a pale hand and a line of silver reach out to him.

* * *

"Oh, good, you're breathing! Can you hear me?"

"Ngh..."

Yuuri's eyes opened wide as he quickly turned over and began gagging up seawater. He coughed like he had strep throat and desperately inhaled as much air around him as possible. After he was finished and began breathing more comfortably, he looked around where he was. His eyes fell upon the dock he was holding onto moments before and people still playing games far off on the beach.

"Are you hurt?"

Yuuri turned onto his back to see the source of that voice. He expected to see his sister or his parents after what had happened, not what he was looking at.

In front of him was a boy who looked to be about his sister's age with long silver hair tied into a ponytail with - seaweed? His frame was small but larger than Yuuri's and as his gaze traveled lower, he was even more speechless than before. Where one normally had on swim trunks and legs, this boy had a fish tail, a long sapphire blue fish tail.

"I'm asking you a question. Are you hurt?" he spoke again with a gentle smile.

"Wh-What are you?" Yuuri asked in disbelief.

"Oh, that's a little rude. I'm Victor, silly!" He continued to smile at the human boy as if the tail wasn't there. "Wait, you mean this?" he asked as his tail wiggled on command.

"You're a mermaid!" he finally concluded.

"Is that what the humans call us? I suppose so. I'm just Victor though, so don't worry!"

"I-I'm not worried, but what happened?" Yuuri asked. He was sure he was delusional at this point. This had to be a dream, a really freaky dream.

"I was swimming around here when I saw you get swept up by the waves. You didn't put up much of a fight and I don't like seeing people get hurt, so I brought you back to the surface and here we are."

"I almost died?" Yuuri asked. "Maybe this is what heaven is like," he thought.

"Yep, but luckily for you, I came to your rescue," Victor winked.

Yuuri was about to respond when he heard a call from his sister. "Yuuri! Are you okay?!" She ran up to him and flung herself onto him. "I saw the wave come and you were gone and I was so worried about you! Don't you ever do that again!" she yelled as tears threatened to leave her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Nee-chan, but look! Victor saved me!" he said.

"Vic- who's that?"

"He's right he-"

Yuuri pointed to the sand where Victor sat moments before. The small waves coming up to the sand wiped away any trace of his trail and therefore his existence.

"Come on, let's get you back home." Mari pulled him along as he stared at the sand and the ocean to find that strange mermaid again.

* * *

"Yuko, you have to believe me! I saw him! He saved me!"

"Yeah, right. I bet you saw a flying pig too!"

"Takeshi, be nice!" Yuko yelled at the chubby boy.

Yuuri ran to the area of the sand he woke up on several days ago and searched for a sign of Victor's existence. He was real and he needed to prove it. There was no way his little body that couldn't swim could have made it back to shore after a wave like that.

"Maybe you're just making this up to impress Yuko," Takeshi spat with a cocky grin.

"Takeshi!" she chastised.

Yuuri, who would be flustered by the remark on any other occasion, ignored it and walked up to the dock with his bare feet. He stepped lightly in order to avoid splinters and looked into the water. Maybe he was hanging around the dock like yesterday, but how come he didn't see him in the water before then? With the sun setting in the distance, the only thing he could make out was his saddened expression flowing in the waves. A figure joined the fray behind him and with a sudden push from behind, the reflection got closer until he entered the cool water.

Yuuri began flailing his arms like yesterday but this time, he was brought to the surface by a hand on his bicep. "Help me, you jerk!" Yuko yelled at a laughing Takeshi. Yuko pulled as hard as she could to bring Yuri back up until Takeshi composed himself enough to get his other arm and pull his chest up on the dock.

The wet boy coughed as he brought his legs up on the wood. "Yuuri, your glasses!" the only girl pointed out. He felt his face and found there was nothing keeping him from touching his skin. He turned around and squinted into the water but his poor eyesight did nothing to help him find the blue specs.

He sat back on the wood and sighed while Yuko brought him a towel from a bag that she brought. "Takeshi, apologize! That was awful! You know he can't swim! What if he drowned before we caught him?!" Yuko yelled.

"I thought you knew how to swim," was the closest thing to an apology that he got as the two made their way back to the sand to pack up their things from today.

Yuuri ran the towel through his hair and felt a chill when a lone wave hit his back.

Turning around, Yuri found the familiar blue glasses sitting on the dock next to a smiley-face drawn with a trail of water that faded in the sea breeze.

* * *

"There's no one here. I guess this really is a dying tourist attraction."

A more grown Yuuri strolls down the beach with a sneaker in both hands. His toes twitched from the soft and ticklish feeling of the sand underneath him. It had been maybe four or five years since he last felt the sand under his feet. He immediately felt nostalgic of the times he spent here as a kid with his family as well as Yuko and Takeshi. It's so crazy to think that nowadays they would come here with three youngsters of their own.

"So many things have changed," he muttered under his breath with a sigh.

After finishing high school, Yuuri decided to study abroad in Detroit to see the world. He didn't know what he wanted to be in life and maybe he went to the land of opportunity to find one. But even after four years, Yuuri still wasn't sure of what he wanted in life. He could be a salaryman just like most people in Japan, but that was too mundane. He could train in Ice Castle Hasetsu to go pro in the skating world since that was childhood passion of his, but that was way too gutsy. The moment another person saw him put on skates would probably be his last from the sheer embarrassment of it all.

He came back to Hasetsu to see his family who would support him through anything he wanted because maybe they would give him some direction. Maybe they had a dream job for their youngest that he could try to be if only to make them happy. His ever-loving parents weren't the type to force their wishes on their children and while many would kill for a situation like that, Yuuri wanted an idea, a purpose. What contributions can he make to this vast open world of his?

What was the point of doing it, though?

Yuuri's chocolate eyes found the old dock and his feet wandered over to it. The wood had algae growing on the side of it and some parts of the planks were missing. It looked like it would collapse any second, but he still walked across it and stood at the edge.

The sun was setting in the distance and Yuuri had to wonder how people wouldn't think to come here to see the colors of the sky change miles away from where he stood. Hues of pink turned into orange that turned into red and a deep blue overhead. The gulls above cried out with shrill voices and the distant waves completed the perfect picture that was his home.

It was the first time he had seen something so breathtaking in a long time. Yuuri sighed while stared out into the ocean and got lost in his own thoughts, a process that had been repeating itself almost daily in recent months.

He placed his shoes on the dock and sat down, rolling up his pants so they wouldn't get wet as he put his feet in the water. The cool waves felt nice on his feet in contrast to the summer heat around him that slowly faded into the night. He leaned back on his palms, breathing in the fresh sea air. "This is really nice. I needed this," he sighed to himself.

"It really is."

"Uh-huh. Wait, what th-"

A large splash consumed Yuuri as he fell off the docks and into the ocean. Unaware of what had just happened, Yuuri pulled his upper body on the docks with practiced ease.

"Wow, that's a nice way to greet someone, huh?"

Yuuri adjusted the glasses that managed to stay on his head and stared in awe at the person before him. On the other side of the dock was a man slightly older than him with short silver hair covering one side of his porcelain white face. He leaned happily on his solid-looking forearms with a childish grin. "Aren't you going to say hi?"

"H-Hi. Where did yo- Who are you?" Yuuri couldn't decide what was more important to ask at the time and instead put his body on auto-pilot as he said whatever came to mind first.

"I'm Victor. How could you forget?" the man said with a pout that didn't seem to suit one his age.

Yuuri nodded slightly and pulled the rest of his body on the dock. He held a hand out to Victor to help him on the dock as well. Seriously, he must be freezing in that water like that. He didn't even hear him get in the water in the first place.

Victor smiled and happily took the hand. Pulling himself up, Victor sat on the edge of the dock with ease. "Thanks," he smiled.

Victor stared out at the ocean with cerulean eyes that Yuuri could have sworn he'd seen before. That was until his eyes traveled farther down the man beside him. Victor wasn't wearing a shirt which revealed a chiseled chest and a-

"Tail?" Yuuri muttered.

The lower half of Victor was made up of a large sapphire mass of scales that glittered in the dying sunlight and droplets of the ocean. The end was made of a fin that looked to be the same as any fish he had seen growing up in Hasetsu.

"Do you really not remember?" Victor asked again.

"Remember what?" Yuuri felt his heart race and confusion cloud his mind. This had to be a prank. This had to be a dream. Was there seriously a man with a fish tail beside him? What was going on?

Victor pouted again and rested his head on his hand. "That hurts, Yuuri. How can you forget the person who saved your life all those years ago?"

"Saved my...wait, that day on the beach. The one when I almost drowned?" Yuuri slowly put the pieces back together. "But there's no way that was real. Everyone said I was just hallucinating from the shock. I mean, I almost died so it's easy to think of something crazy like a...mermaid."

Victor's eyes softened and grabbed one of Yuuri's hands. "Does this feel like a dream?" he asked. Victor placed one hand on his chest over where his heart was while placing the other on his fin. Yuuri tensed as he felt the strange wet heat from this other person. With one hand, he felt a gentle pulse of a heartbeat while the other felt the smooth and glistening fin as if it was made out of glass. He was actually feeling this. He was actually touching him.

He was actually real.

Victor released his hands but Yuuri didn't move away. Instead, he looked into those brown eyes that were searching for an answer of some sort. "Do you believe me now?"

"I-I do, but wow. I wouldn't be surprised if this was a dream after all," Yuuri said.

"Do you always dream about handsome men such as myself?" Victor joked.

"Huh?! N-No! I mean, if they're there then...no! Hey, don't laugh at me," Yuuri stuttered in embarrassment. The way his face heated up made him forget about the cold ocean water seeping through his clothes from his previous fall.

Victor chuckled behind his hand and shot him a caring smile. "I'm just kidding! You really haven't changed that much, have you?"

"Changed? What do you mean? We've only met once, haven't we? I barely remember that time, too, since it was so long ago."

Victor stretched his arms over his head, inadvertently showing off his muscular upper body. "It's getting late. Perhaps this is a conversation for another day. We wouldn't want you to catch a cold like that, do we?" Victor asked.

"But-"

"I'll see you later, Yuuri. Get home safely, okay?"

Without another word, the mermaid dove back into the water and Yuuri's eyes could only catch a single glimpse of the shimmering blue tail before the sun disappeared from the night sky.

* * *

"I see you came by again today, Yuuri. What's wrong?"

Yuuri continued to stare out into the sunset, no longer disturbed by the presence of what he thought was just a mythological creature until a week or so ago. He had come to the beach every day at the same time to see the mermaid ever since they first met, or rather since he remembered Victor. He still couldn't wrap his brain around the idea that a figment of his childhood imagination wasn't as imaginary as he once thought.

Victor hopped onto the dock next to Yuuri and waited for a response. He found that whenever Yuuri had something weighing down on his mind, he didn't want to talk about it. Maybe he wanted to keep it to himself or maybe he didn't know how to form his thoughts verbally. Either way, Victor waited beside him and hoped the presence of another would be enough to make him feel even a little bit better.

"When I was younger, I would come here to clear my head whenever something big was happening or I needed space to think. It's no different from now, I guess," he said with an added sigh. "It's strange. I believed that you existed while everyone else said I was just imagining it and I still came here anyway."

"You came here a lot less as you got older. Were there fewer problems?" Victor asked.

Yuuri turned his head in confusion. How did Victor know he came here so often? They only interacted once to his knowledge. "I watched you whenever you came here with those friends of yours and those older people."

"My family," he corrected.

"Hm. You were always happy with them but never by yourself."

The human turned his attention back towards the sunset. "Isn't everyone like that?" he asked.

"I know a few people like that but I wouldn't say everyone is," Victor answered. He extended each of his fingers as if he was counting in his head. "Let's see, there's Yurio and Yakov, Seung-gil is usually by himself..."

Yuuri looked over at the mermaid with more interest than he showed while they sat there that day. "There's more like you?" he asked.

"None of them are as cool as me, but you meant mermaids, yes? Of course there are. We just don't make ourselves known to humans," Victor answered simply.

"Then why are you here?"

"I've always been a bit of a troublemaker, but I couldn't let a human die all those years ago. I'm sure I would have appreciated it if someone saved me if I was close to death. Besides, the battle between humans and mermaids is so overdone at this point," he explained.

Yuuri had never heard of anything like this before. From what he gathered, the sea seemed to hold a whole new world of its own. He learned a lot about the ocean and its many layers and creatures when he was in science class, but he never thought there was anything spectacular like a battle between his world and Victor's. He didn't even know there was a divide between the two until recently.

"Is meeting like this really so bad where you're from?" Yuuri asked hesitantly. What if this was a form of taboo that would end horribly for the both of them? What if there was some ancient sea curse attached to their interactions?

"Meeting anyone can be bad if you meet bad people. Centuries ago, the humans hunted us because they thought we were demons or something. I never paid attention to the old tales, but they warned us to stay away from the surface to avoid suspicion. I've always tested my limits with my people, but I'm not as reckless as they say. But to answer your question, it's not so bad that we meet. They just want to make sure their people are protected," Victor explained. "If they find one of us, they might find all of us and I don't want to be the cause of mermaid genocide."

Yuuri was amazed at how complex the whole idea sounded. Suddenly, he was taken back to when he was a kid and read fairy tale after fairy tale about mermaids and the undersea world with kingdoms and seahorse-drawn carriages. He'd ask if there was any truth to those stories, but that would sound stupid, even to Yuuri.

"Your spirits were certainly lifted from that," Victor pointed out. He poked Yuuri's face with a cold, pale finger and made the Japanese boy flinch. "You were smiling like a little kid."

Yuuri covered his face with his hands and turned away from the blue mermaid. "I was not!" he whined.

"You're blushing now."

"I am no-"

Victor held onto Yuuri's wrists and pulled them away from his person, drawing close to his face. "Well, if you weren't then, you certainly are now," he smirked.

Yuuri's face heated up as he pushed Victor back into the water with a large splash. The mermaid returned to the surface momentarily with silver hair sticking to one side of his face. "That was mean, Yuuri, but not as mean as this!"

With a swift motion of his arm, Victor pulled Yuuri into the water by his legs and relished in the yelp that came out of his mouth before impact. He grabbed the man's arm and pulled him to the dock, making sure he wouldn't drown like he almost did as a child.

"That was so not funny," Yuuri grumbled as he pulled himself onto the dock.

"At least you learned how to swim since back then!" Victor smiled.

Yuuri growled in his throat while trying to dry off his clothes with a towel he brought to the beach. Victor liked to play pranks on him like this whenever he came to the dock, so now he got the idea to come prepared with a towel and a jacket just in case.

"You really haven't changed much," Victor said again.

"You said that the other day, but what do you mean by that?" Yuuri asked.

The silver haired man rested a finger on his chin in thought. "A brat!" he chuckled. His response from Yuuri was a shoe being thrown at him which he luckily caught. "Aww, this is exactly what I mean!"

"Whatever, just give me back my shoe, alright?" Yuuri said irritably.

Victor smiled at how casual Yuuri was becoming with him in the last few times he's visited the beach. "Here, give me your foot." Taking Yuuri's foot in one hand, Victor slid the sneaker onto Yuuri's soaking feet and tied the laces until it was snug on his foot. Before releasing it, he planted a light kiss on the top of his shoe where his toes would be. Looking up, he saw how flustered Yuuri had gotten during the interaction and winked at him.

"See you later, Yuuri."

"S-See you."

* * *

It had been at least a week since Yuuri had visited the beach. The weatherman reported thunderstorms along the coast at the beginning of the week, but the rain and wind lasted longer than what citizens had hoped for. It was still dreary out when Yuuri decided it was okay to visit the beach again. The clouds covered the sky with a shield of gray that kept the sun rays from shining down on the sand. The wind pushed on the waves more so than usual, sweeping them farther on the shore. Yuuri kept his shoes on this time when walking through the sand because of how wet and condensed it became.

He pulled his hoodie closer around him as a harsh breeze passed by for the millionth time that day and walked up to the dock. "Victor?"

Said man was already sitting on the dock in plain view as if he wasn't a mermaid out of the protection of the sea. His silver locks twisted and flew around him with each passing breeze as he turned around to meet chocolate colored eyes. Yuuri was taken aback when as he saw a saddened blue in Victor's clear eyes. For as long as they had been meeting, those beautiful blue eyes never lost their spark.

Until now, that is.

Victor faced forward again while Yuuri made himself comfortable on the wooden platform. "Is everything alright?" he asked hesitantly. He was so used so showing a pitiful expression like that that he had very little experience being on the other end of it. How does one go about comforting someone else?

"Hm. I was just pondering some things by myself," the mermaid said vaguely.

Yuuri nodded and wondered what was the next appropriate thing to say without prying too much. "Do you need a second opinion on something? I might not be much help, but I'm a good listener if you need one."

Victor smiled at his kindness. "I'm not sure if it's something I can get help with. It feels like something I should do on my own, but it's one of those complicated parts of life, you see?" Yuuri nodded intently but said nothing as Victor continued. "All my life, I've lived among the mermaids and their traditions while straying away from them in my own way. I've watched the humans that come to this beach and wonder what it would be like if I was one of them. Being a mermaid, we are neither fish nor human, but we carry their parts as well as their feelings. I guess what my dilemma is what if I feel like neither or both? Am I supposed to decide which I am or do I carry out life as I have in spite of these feelings?"

Victor sighed and stared out in the distant gray. When the sun was out, it would make him seem like he was glowing, like he really was a mythological creature and not a warm person beside Yuuri. The gray clouds made him seem more pale and fragile looking than before. If someone were to see Victor from the waist up, there would be no doubt they would think he was a normal person with normal, conflicting, uncertain feelings.

Even with the more human qualities he was displaying today, somewhere in the beauty that was the creature beside him, Yuuri saw himself.

"You probably aren't giving yourself enough credit, Victor." The mermaid's human-shaped ears perked up after hearing this. "I know a lot of people who go through life wondering who they are and who they want to be. Hell, that's the whole reason why I came back to Hasetsu. Being confused...it's how we are. Maybe your people feel the same way we do. Every single living being on this earth is living their own lives with their own situations. It's hard to think of others when yours is so confusing, but I don't know a single person who doesn't or hasn't felt the same way you do. So, whatever it is you're going through, it won't last forever, I'm sure."

Yuuri never broke eye contact during that whole speech. His warm smile melted onto his face without him noticing, but Victor sure as hell did. He stared back at the human with an expression of awe that brought a pink hue to Yuuri's cheeks.

He turned back towards the ocean as a way of finding something else to look at out of embarrassment. "That probably didn't help, did it? I'm sorr-"

"Yuuri."

The man felt his name reverberate in his ear drums like a hypnotizing song. The time around him felt like it was going slower, like the only thing in this world was him and the mermaid next to him. The cries of the gulls and the waves of the ocean were tuned out with his two-syllable name.

Victor turned Yuuri's head with a slender finger to bring his attention back to him. Chestnut eyes met a clear sky blue as they came closer and closer into his field of vision until Yuuri felt a soft warmth on his lips. The Japanese man blinked twice before melting into what he could coherently identify as a kiss. The warmth spread throughout his body through every nerve, every muscle, every cell. His eyes closed involuntarily and Victor pushed himself into the other to deepen the kiss. It was innocent, sweet, and pure. Yuuri had not been with another and could only imagine what something so small would feel like. His wildest imaginations had not prepared him for something so strong.

Nor could it prepare him from the plunge off the dock.

Victor wrapped his arms loosely around Yuuri's neck to pull him along without strangling him in the water or breaking the connection of their lips. Yuuri was rudely awakened from the blissful feeling of the kiss and felt the adrenaline pour in as Victor took him deeper and deeper into the ocean. He tried to push away, but Victor held him close by the wrist.

"Don't worry, Yuuri. Just breathe. You're okay," he spoke.

Confused was not sufficient enough to describe how Yuuri was feeling, but his lungs struggling to find oxygen ultimately gave way. His breathing was uneven and he clutched his chest that was sore on the inside. In a moment, he realized he was inhaling and exhaling underwater instead of drowning and seeing the gates of heaven. "Wh-What? How am I- Is this a dream?" he asked on auto-pilot again.

Victor swam around the human with his sapphire tail brushing around him. "A mermaid's kiss is magical, wouldn't you say?" he said with a coy smile.

Yuuri blushed but tried to think past Victor's vague answer. "Why did you do that?"

Victor looked away in exaggerated thought with a hand cupping his chin. "Hm. What you said was very inspiring, Yuuri, but you don't seem to follow your own advice. You always look at the world to see what you can change but you never ask for help when you need it." Yuuri tensed up from being under what he felt was ridicule. "You said it yourself that that's the reason you came back here, but what do you not understand? What do you need help with and how can I help you?"

Yuuri's body moved along with the motion of the waves with his hair floating around the outskirts of his eyes. He was in an entirely new world within his own that he had no idea existed until a few weeks ago. What he wanted was to change the world for the better, but he had no idea where to start and what he was capable of.

Maybe his world wasn't the one he could change.

"I want...to do something great for other people, for the world," he muttered absentmindedly.

"How?"

"I...That's what I don't know, Victor," Yuuri said. "There isn't much that I can do. I'm just one person."

Victor hummed coyly and swam around Yuuri in circles. "Hmm, how much of the world have you seen?" he asked.

"I studied abroad in Detroit in America and I've been to different parts of Japan, but-"

"It's settled, then," Victor chirped.

"Huh? What is- hey!"

A pale hand tightly held a tanner wrist as the mermaid began moving his glistening tail at an impressive speed. Yuuri, who screamed at the sudden movement, found himself captivated in the water. He didn't feel wet, but his clothes still stuck to him like he was, and the water he inhaled felt just like regular oxygen. His black hair whipped violently around his face but felt much softer after being exposed to the salty liquid. Around him, he saw colonies of fish of all sizes swimming about like how he saw as a kid in the aquarium and school documentaries. The colors of their gills glistened in the light that seeped through the waves and shone on a world that no marine biologist could ever describe properly to him.

"Woah..." fell off his lips in a moment of speechlessness and Victor smirked at how mesmerized he made the boy. He pushed forward through the calm night waves with his human companion holding onto his wrist beside him. They passed rocks covered in moss and beaten from erosion where families of sea creatures lived peacefully until they were brought up to a large cave-like structure further in.

"This is where I live," Victor pointed out. The cave was surrounded by coral of all colors to match Victor's colorful personality. Some plants seemed to glow like a solar-powered nightlight that gave the cave a mystical feeling (not that being underwater without drowning wasn't mystical in itself).

Before Yuuri could finish admiring the scenery, a small figure swam out from the inside of the cave. "Victor! You're finally back. What the fuck took you so lo- what the hell?!"

The human blinked at the new presence of another half-man-half-fish. This one looked smaller than even him with the build of a high schooler with long blonde hair that reminded Yuuri of Victor during their first encounter as kids. His hair was tied to the side in a braid with a thin strip of seaweed to show the distasteful look on his face. His tail was smaller than Victor's and had a striking blood red color to it. His tail almost matched his face as the boy yelled aggressively at the two.

"Did you fucking bring a human here?! Are you insane?! Yakov is going to murder you!" he yelled.

"Yuuri, this is Yurio. He's a little shy, so don't mind him," Victor introduced with a cheeky smile.

"This is serious! And stop calling me Yurio! You know that's not my name! How many times do I have to tell you it's just Yuri?!" the red mermaid screamed.

"Yuri? We have the same name?" the human asked.

Yuri stopped his rambling and wore a look of pure disgust. "There's no way I can share a name with the likes of you, human pig."

"Now, now, that's no way to treat our guest," Victor cooed.

"Guest? You know if you bring him in, Yakov will freak the fuck out. Even you're not that stupid, I hope," Yuri said. He crossed his arms over his chest and eyed Yuuri dangerously.

"That's so mean, Yurio. I just wanted to show him what it's like down here. I thought the reef was a nice place to go, wouldn't you say? You can come with us if you'd like," he smiled. He knew that Yuri was just as fascinated with the human world as he was even though he would never admit it with the bright green eyes he had seen staring at the beachfront in the past. Being near an actual human that had no intention of hurting them was a once in a lifetime experience in his mind and Yuri wasn't stubborn enough to turn that down.

Yuri clicked his tongue and turned away. "Well, someone needs to keep a level head here. If Yakov catches you breaking the rules again, I don't want to be an accomplice," he said.

"But aren't you already one knowing I'm here?" the Japanese Yuuri asked.

"Shut it, pig! If you don't get caught, you don't get in trouble, got it?" Yuri spat.

Yuuri laughed casually and Victor was amazed at how easily he came to terms meeting another one of his kind. Maybe this whole experience wasn't as daunting on him as he once thought it was.

"So, where do you plan to take him, huh?" Yuri asked, bringing the blue mermaid back to reality.

"I was thinking the coral garden. It's pretty at this time of night, right?" he asked.

"Tch, whatever. Yakov said he'd be gone for the night to find more ingredients or whatever, so he shouldn't be in that direction."

Victor sighed in relief and tugged Yuuri's hand again. "Shall we?" He wasn't surprised in the slightest when Yuuri nodded and began swimming again with Yuri behind them.

The black haired boy looked around at his surroundings, trying to take in every inch, every color he saw. More often than not, he saw the flashes of red and blue of the tails of his newfound friends. "You want an autograph?" Yuri asked when he caught the other staring at him.

"I'm just wondering what drew you to Victor," he said as a way to start a conversation with what he assumed was the mermaid equivalent of a teen.

"I could say the same about you, pig."

"I asked you first," he said calmly.

"If you must know, we grew up together. Yakov took the both of us in when we were younger and raised us," Yuri explained.

"You've brought him up a lot. Why is he worried about Victor bringing a human?" Yuuri asked. Maybe Victor wasn't too concerned with the consequences of bringing a human with him to the sea, but there certainly had to be boundaries other mermaids weren't willing or supposed to break.

"He's one of the elders of our kind, the ones that watch over us. He has a soft spot for that buffoon, but you should know how dangerous humans knowing about our presence can be. It would be best for you to go back to the surface where you belong," Yuri said.

As much as Yuuri knew that was the best course of action, it stung a bit to hear someone say that. For as long as he could remember, there weren't many people that Yuuri let inside his shell. Many people overlooked him and made him feel small, smaller than what he truly was. Victor, even if he wasn't part of his species, listened to him and made him feel more than what he's felt in a long time. He can't exactly describe this feeling, but he knew he would be sad if he couldn't see Victor anymore.

"You make it sound like I'd stick around long enough for him to catch me," Victor spoke for the first time since they were at the cave.

"You always say that but you don't mean it," Yuri spat.

"Didn't Yakov say he was almost finished with that po-"

"Victor! Don't you dare think you can just take that! For once in your damned life think before you act!" Yuri yelled with more fury than they had heard that day. All three of them stopped swimming in an apparent stand-off against each other. "You don't know what could happen if you take that! You don't know what others will do or what they will think!"

Victor swam forward to close the difference between them and squeezed Yurio's soft cheeks together with one hand. "That mouth won't get you anywhere if you keep saying such things, Yurio. In case you have forgotten, you aren't my controller." Yuuri had never heard Victor speak in such a tone and based on Yuri's widened green eyes and slightly shaking form, he could guess Yuri hadn't either.

He quickly pushed the hand away and began swimming back to where they had come from. "Throw your life away for all I care. Just don't say I didn't warn you!" he yelled before he disappeared into a small red dot in the distance of the waves.

"What was he talking about?" Yuuri asked cautiously. He didn't know much of anything about the affairs of mermaids, but if he concerned him in any way, he wanted to be made aware.

Victor's blue eyes were narrowed until Yuuri's voice registered in his mind. "Come, we don't have much farther to go," Victor said with a smile that made something in Yuuri's chest flutter. He held out his hand that Yuuri graciously took and began swimming again for not much longer.

Yuuri was silently amazed by the rainbow of color his saw from yards away while the mermaid pushed them forward. Different shades of every color he had ever seen were represented in bushels of coral as far as his eyes could see behind the glasses that still stuck to his face. There were a few small fish that roamed around the coral, but none took notice of his presence. He felt like he was looking at a display in the local aquarium until he was pulled to two rocks towards the end of the garden.

Victor rested on one rock while Yuuri took the other. The mermaid was probably tired from swimming them around the whole time and stretched his arms over his head before laying flat on the rock. "Like what you see?" he asked.

Yuuri had a smile plastered on his face as he nodded. He couldn't tear his eyes away from the scenery, afraid that once he did, he would wake up in his bed in Hasetsu from a dream he wishes would come true.

"I was talking about me."

Yuuri jumped and slid off the rock in a moment of embarrassment that launched a series of laughter from the mermaid. "Why do you always do that?" he asked. He pushed off the sea floor and swam back towards the rock. His body was turned away from Victor with his arms crossed like a child that was seconds away from throwing a temper tantrum.

Victor drew closer to him and wrapped his arms loosely around Yuuri's neck. "You don't have to be so flustered, Yuuri." He drew out the "u" in his name as he whispered in said man's ear, making them turn as red as the coral before them. He snickered and rested his head on the human's shoulder. "Tell me, is there anything on the surface like this to you? Something that calms you down when you're upset or something that makes you happy no matter the circumstance?" Yuuri turned his head towards Victor but his movement was restricted with the head on his shoulder. "I came here all the time growing up whenever I needed to get away from Yurio or Yakov. This place was so pretty that it made me forget about all the bad things that have happened and it really calmed me down. The world above is so big that there must be something even better up there."

Yuuri looked out at the coral garden without seeing it. Finding an answer to Victor's question was no easy task by any means. He wondered about it his whole life and was at a loss of where to go next because of it. Even so, Yuuri found something that he could say. "I guess the beach is. When I was younger, it was a place to hang out with Yuko and Takeshi that later became a place to go to relax. In high school and after that, sitting by the sea and listening to the breeze and the waves calmed me down." Victor had released him at this point and sat next to him with his smooth tail brushing lightly against his leg. They made eye contact as Yuuri continued speaking. "Then you came into my life. You make everything seem so simple and carefree while all I do is worry endlessly. Coming back to the dock had a different meaning after that, I guess."

He realized that what he said would have made him flustered normally, but for whatever reason, it just felt right to say it. He wanted Victor to understand how he felt so that no matter how annoyed he gets with him over stupid pranks, he cares deeply for the mermaid and he wasn't one of those people Yakov wanted him to stay far away from.

"That was truly inspiring, Yuuri. You always say things like this without a second thought but never listen to them for yourself," Victor spoke. He naturally leaned into Yuuri's body with their lips mere inches apart. He stayed there for a moment to gauge Yuuri's reaction before letting the moment carry him away.

"Wasn't it you who said they wanted to help me see that?" Yuuri asked with a sly smirk.

Victor smiled in return. "I suppose I was, huh?"

It wasn't clear who initiated the kiss, but neither male cared as they melted into each other with the rainbow coral as their witness.

* * *

Yuuri had become accustomed to being underwater with Victor for prolonged amounts of time without feeling the natural instinct of saving himself from drowning. Their meetings at this point where spent talking about each others' day before a light kiss that would take them to the cove with Yuri sometimes present.

The Yuris would argue often mostly at the mermaid's stubbornness but the two were getting along in their own way. Yuri was learning so much more about the human world than from the stories the elders told and Yuuri learned more about what Victor was like as a teen. Yuuri often had to describe human customs like clothes as if he were talking to a small child which frustrated Yuri to no end. Yuri would often yell at Victor whenever he tried to play off his teenage endeavors as "normal" and "not illegal by the means of the elders".

During their civil conversations, Victor would sit back on the rock at the coral garden and idly play with one of the Yuris' hair. He liked to stylize it with the plant life in the sea and designs he saw humans wear whenever they went to the beach. Neither one minded the touching from the blue mermaid which made their interactions seem all the more genuine and casual.

When Yuri was not present for reasons like accompanying Yakov on his trips around the sea for whatever he needed, Yuuri and Victor would talk about whatever came to their mind as they watched the sea creatures carry out their days as usual with their hands intertwined at the side. Yuuri enjoyed whatever it was that they had. He had never been in a relationship before meeting Victor but he wasn't sure if there were some kind of mermaid traditions regarding relationships. Was this even considered right since they were both males? He hated to think that homophobia plagued the sea as well as the surface.

It had been weeks since Yuuri was first brought into the ocean and with how frequently they entered the waters, he was more prepared than ever. He wore swim trunks under his clothes so that once Victor shows up, he can leave his clothes dry on the side of the dock instead of walking home soaking wet every day.

Yuuri made his way to the dock and found it empty for once. He figured the mermaid would be there soon and decided to use his time to strip down to his purple and black striped swim trunks. Takeshi had called them a fashion disaster, but Yuuri was never one to follow clothing trends. He sat down and relished in the feeling of the cool waters lapping against his bare legs. The sea breeze was calm today, too.

Everything was peaceful around him until Yuuri felt a pair of hands cover his eyes and whisper his name in his ears.

Yuuri jumped forward, plunging into the water and decided to stay there for a bit in case the person was trying to harm them. "What the hell was- Wait a second," Yuuri tried to make sense of the situation.

Reluctantly, he pulled himself back towards the surface and made eye contact with the stranger.

"That's a nice way to greet someone, huh?"

Striking blue eyes shot back at Yuuri's and it took a lot of will not to slip back into the ocean. "This is a dream, right?"

"Do you always dream about handsome men?"

From the waist up, it was most certainly Victor with his unique silver locks and sky blue eyes, but from the waist down, he was utterly unrecognizable.

And completely naked.

Yuuri pulled himself on the dock and made it a point not to stare at him. "What happened to you? And put some clothes on!" he chastised. He grabbed a towel from his bag and handed Victor his own clothes to cover up with.

"I thought you'd be more excited," Victor pouted as he slipped the pants on his long, pale, human legs.

"I'm just...how did you get legs? Is that a mermaid thing?" Yuuri asked. He turned back towards the new human after hearing the zipper of the pants go up.

"I drank one of Yakov's potion," he said nonchalantly.

"You what?!"

"I said I drank one of-"

"Isn't that the thing Yurio was mad at you about? The thing he told you not to do to ruin your life? Why would you do something like that?" Yuuri asked. As much as he was intrigued by Victor's new legs, he had to at least play Devil's advocate for something so serious. Did Yakov know about this or Yurio? To be fair, Victor most likely wouldn't have listened to them anyway.

Victor knelt down to Yuuri and took his hands in his. "I've shown you plenty of my world and I wanted to see what yours was like. Whatever is important to you is important to me too!" He spoke like a child that had no idea what the consequences of his actions were, but Yuuri was flattered by his way of thinking. He felt the same way towards Victor and the reciprocated feelings chipped away at his previous anger.

"How long will the potion last? It's not permanent, right?" Yuuri asked. He wanted the answer to be it was permanent so that they could stay like that forever, but he knew this was a whole new set of forbidden mermaid laws.

"From what I heard him say about it, until midnight, or at least around then. It's still a work in progress, but I'll take the chance if I get to be closer to you, Yuuri," he cooed lovingly.

Yuuri blushed and Victor helped him to stand. In their new position, Yuuri saw that Victor towered over him by a few inches. He was older than him, so he supposed it made sense his human height would reflect that. Victor smiled down at him and enveloped him in a tight hug. "I see couples do this all the time and wanted to try it for myself," he said in a soft voice.

Yuuri smiled and returned the hug. "You're such a dork," he whispered back.

Neither of them wanted to pull away from this moment, their moment, but Victor had a goal to see as much of Hasetsu as possible and he's an unstoppable force once his mind is set to something.

* * *

"I had no idea there was so much history here! No one talks about it by the beach," Victor said. His body spun in circles with his arms stretched over his head like a kid at an amusement park that was fully prepared to go on every single ride.

In this analogy, Yuuri was most certainly the exhausted parent that wanted a five-second break from the excitement radiating off said child.

Victor's newfound limbs were was such an unexpected discovery that he had no idea where to go except for the popular tourist attractions like Hasetsu castle or the local shrines. He never saw anything of the sort in his travels in the sea, so he thought Victor would appreciate it.

That, he did. Victor was completely mesmerized by the architecture made by humans and the way people dressed when they traveled in the streets in contrast to swimming attire. The way he acted reminded Yuuri of himself when they first entered the water albeit Victor was being more obnoxious about it. He smiled to himself and thought about how cute Victor was acting. Even with half of his body changed, he was still the same old Victor.

"Yuuri, I'm hungry. What food do you make up here?" Victor asked. He threw his arms around Yuuri's neck and leaned into his arm, almost knocking him off balance. Now, he really looked like a child.

"My mom makes the best pork cutlet bowls in the world," Yuuri said with a cheeky grin. If there was anything anyone knew about Yuuri, it was his all-time favorite food. Homemade cooking was also something Yuuri loved with all his heart. Sharing that with the person who stole his heart would be a good idea for a date.

Date...

"Yuuri?" Victor's face peered at him from inches away. The Japanese man jumped back with blushing red cheeks and Victor took the opportunity to tease him. "What were you thinking about just now?" he asked. He carefully placed a slender finger on Yuuri's chin to ensure eye contact between the two.

Yuuri shook his head and grabbed Victor by the hand. "Come on, I'll get my mom to make us some!" he tried to ignore the subject.

Normally, Victor would have pouted, but being tugged along by the other for a change made his chest warm up.

* * *

"Yuuri, you're home early. Oh, who's this?" Yuuri's mother greeted. She gave her some a hug and smiled gently at the silver haired man who graciously returned it.

"I ran into a friend of mine from America while I was out on my walk. His name is Victor," Yuuri said. He hoped he wasn't acting suspiciously with the white lie. Victor was a friend (perhaps more than that, but still a friend nonetheless) and who's to say Victor never went as far out as America (that was wishful thinking, even for Yuuri)?

Regardless of what was a truth and what wasn't, his mother visibly brightened and shook Victor's hand. "Thank you for taking care of my son!" she said.

"Mom..." Yuuri mumbled in embarrassment with a slight pink tinting his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, dear. It's been a long time since you brought a friend here other than Yuko and Takeshi. Oh, I know! How does lunch sound? I'll be right back. You two should get settled in the dining area." With that said, his mother trotted off to make lunch for the both of them. They didn't even need to ask to know pork cutlet bowls were always on the menu.

Yuuri took Victor by the hand again and guided him through their family's inn to an open room with many short tables filling the empty space. There wasn't anyone in the inn which made the Japanese man release a breath he wasn't aware he was holding. "It shouldn't be long for her to make it," Yuuri said to Victor.

Yuuri sat down at one of the tables while Victor walked around the room to look at all the trinkets and family photos they possessed. "You look so tiny in these pictures," Victor said. He pointed to a family photo at the local skating rink with his parents and his sister from when he was about ten.

"That was taken years ago," Yuuri muttered. He hated whenever people looked at his past pictures. It felt embarrassing being compared to the past and almost condescending, depending on who was looking.

He tapped his finger on the table until his mother came out with a tray of two steaming bowls. "Enjoy your meal, you two, and Victor, if you need a place to stay, we have a lot of extra rooms available!"

"I'd like that. Thank you," he smiled. Yuuri's mother nodded politely and left the two men to their food.

Victor took a seat across from Yuuri and eyed his food with the same amount of enthusiasm he had shown all day. "This looks amazing!" He took a fork that their host had given them in case Victor couldn't use chopsticks and stabbed the slice of meat before taking it into his mouth. "Uwah! So yummy!"

Yuuri couldn't contain his laughter at this point. The way he looked at his food and tore into it like a wild animal was so much like that of a small child. How was it that he was the older one of the two?

"What's so funny?" Victor asked.

Yuuri looked at the man before him once his laughter settled down. Rice stuck to the corner of Victor's mouth and Yuuri leaned over the table to wipe it away with his thumb. "You're such a kid," he muttered.

Victor put his fork down and took hold of the hand Yuuri had extended out to him. He licked the rice off his finger and placed an open kiss on the palm of his hand. Yuuri's face lit up like a Christmas tree and Victor smirked as he nuzzled his cheek in the other's hand. "Today was really nice, Yuuri," he sighed.

He swallowed thickly and nodded in agreement. His eyes found a clock past Victor and saw it was going on seven o'clock. "There's only a few hours left of this before you have to go back," he said. He felt a pang in his chest and Victor's hold tense up around his wrist when those words left his lips. Both of them wanted these moments to last forever but their worlds clashed too much for that to happen.

"I think I'm ready for one of those rooms your mother mentioned. Take me to one?" Victor asked. His voice was mellow and steady, but there was something in his eyes that Yuuri couldn't quite put a finger on. He was obviously deep in thought, but he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Yuuri nodded and put their now empty bowls on the tray before returning it to the kitchen. Victor waited patiently for him and followed him through the winding halls of the inn until they were in the section that Yuuri's family lived in. In a far corner of the house, Yuuri brought them to his room which was smaller than what Victor was expecting. "It's not a cave, but it does feel like home," he said.

Just like when he was in the dining area, Victor looked at everything he could in Yuuri's room while he watched him from the bed. His fingers grazed the surface of the desk and touched the few plushies Yuuri had collected over the years because they were too cute to pass up. He looked at more pictures of Yuuri and sceneries Victor had never seen before.

He would probably never have the chance to see these places after today.

"Victor? Is everything alright? You've been staring at that one for a while," Yuuri spoke.

Victor nodded slightly and took a seat next to Yuuri on the bed. He leaned into his arm like he would whenever they stayed at the coral garden and rubbed one of his hands with his thumb. The gentle stimulation on his skin was enough to make Yuuri's heart flutter and he was no longer embarrassed by the action after experiencing it so many times.

"Yuuri, how do you show someone that you love them here?"

Yuuri tensed up and sharply turned his head to look at Victor. "Wh-Why do you want to know that?" he asked shakily. He felt his face heat up like the hot springs in the inn and adjusted his blue spectacles.

"I've learned there are different ways to love people depending on how close you are to them. I love Yurio because he's fun to be around and so is Mila and Georgi. Yakov is like a father to me because he watched over me as I grew up. Then, there's you. I hate putting labels on people, but even if I did, I don't know what you are or what you want to be. We've become close in the time we've known each other, but is this what the humans call love up here?"

Slowly, Victor made eye contact to gauge what was going on in Yuuri's head. His brown eyes were widened and his mouth was slightly agape. He looked confused, but he also looked relieved and sure of himself.

"On the surface, love is what makes you happy. Family, friendship, relationships, it all boils down to the same emotion. Many people call it love, but it means different things to different people," Yuuri said.

He felt his hand be pulled away from the edge of the bed and brought to Victor's lips. "What does it mean to you, Yuuri?"

Yuuri didn't need to answer verbally. He leaned in and connected their lips in a dance where only those two knew the steps. Victor deepened the kiss by pulling the other into his body with a hand cradling his head and the other on his lower back. Yuuri moved closer into Victor until the older man fell back on the sheets with him laying on top of his chest.

Their mouths disconnected and their breathing was ragged. The black haired man looked up into those crystal blue eyes. "You. Whenever I think of love, I think of you. I can't imagine another being that even comes close to what I feel for you," he said with confidence Victor had rarely seen. Normally, he would have thought Yuuri would curl into a ball of adorable embarrassment, but the way his face was tense and stern showed how serious he was in this moment.

He cupped the tan cheek and pulled him into another chaste kiss. "You always know how to surprise me," he whispered with a smile.

Yuuri buried his face his shirt that was now covered in Victor's scent. "Where does this leave us then? After tonight, you'll have to go back to the sea and who knows what Yakov will do if he finds out you came here." He hated to think about Victor leaving the human world, but it was meant to be this way. He knew it and understood it, but god, did he hate it.

"Then we'll have to make the most out of the night."

In a motion so swift Yuuri hadn't noticed until he saw his ceiling, Victor flipped them over so that he was on top of the other. His arms created a wall around Yuuri and he stared down with those eyes that held a fiery emotion only Yuuri would ever see. "Yuuri, I love you and I can't imagine being without you. Please, let me stay with you like this tonight." He spoke softly like he was afraid that Yuuri would break after the sound vibrations died out.

Yuuri found that his arms were trembling slightly when his hand stroked the smooth skin from his wrist to his cheek. "I...love you too, but I've never done anything like this before..." His voice trailed off into a squeaky whisper and his face was red enough to match Yurio's tail. His head turned to the side because he was way too embarrassed to make eye contact. His slender neck was exposed and Victor could make out a slight pink that made it to his collar bone.

A low snickered left his lips and Yuuri's mouth tightened and his eyebrows furrowed. He knew he'd get laughed at for being a virgin at his age, but he hoped Victor would be nicer about it. "You're utterly adorable, Yuuri," he whispered in a ruby red ear. His hot breath trailed down the shell of his ear and made its way to the nape of his neck where he left an open mouth kiss. His shoulders tightened and Victor leaned back slightly to look at Yuuri's face again. "I think you're forgetting that I don't have experience in this either," he smirked.

Yuuri looked back at him for what felt like the first time in forever. The merman took a clenched fist and placed it over his heart. Yuuri was taken aback by how fast his heart was beating. He could feel the speed resonating with his own rapid beating. Yuuri would never have imagined in a million years that another person, another living being would hold such strong feelings for an average person like him. Yet, here he was with the man he loved who he knew loved him back and there was nothing that could tear them away from this moment. In this room, they were the only ones in the world.

"Maybe this is the world that I've wanted to change."

Victor smiled gently and brought Yuuri into another kiss. They had done this plenty of times today alone, but there was something different about the warmth going through them. Now, it felt like something was whole, something was complete.

It felt like both of them had found the other half to their human hearts.

Victor's larger hands gripped Yuuri's sides who squirmed underneath him and massaged his abdomen. His skin was soft and firm under his palm and he could feel the ever-so-slight bulge he had in the center from his love of pork cutlet bowls. He exhaled through his nose and smiled into the kiss. How was it possible that so much cuteness existed in one person?

Yuuri felt a thin trail of wetness escape his eyes as he tightly wrapped his arms around Victor's neck to keep him from escaping. He was so happy in this moment that he couldn't contain himself. His emotions were so vast that they were overflowing in the form of tears. Victor felt the other quiver below him and eased away from his lips. "Are you okay, Yuuri?" he asked. "Please don't cry. If I did something to upse-"

"I love you."

Victor blinked twice at the sudden response. "Then why are you crying?"

"I'm just so happy, you idiot!" He brought the taller man into a tight embrace and buried his head in the juncture between his neck and his shoulder. "Please, whatever you do before the night is over, Victor, don't stop. I'm begging you."

Victor's chest lit up and he held the other in a bone-crushing hug. "I promise, but if there's anything wrong, tell me right away, okay? Hurting you would be the deadliest sin," he whispered back. Yuuri nodded and pulled back to stare into those eyes he loved so much. Both of them smiled like dorks and broke into a small fit of giggles before one of them brought their lips back together.

Victor resumed his ministrations and pushed his hands underneath Yuuri's shirt. His cool hands made Yuuri shiver under his touch, especially when he slid all the way up to his chest. He squeezed his pectorals and ran his thumbs over the sensitive nubs. Victor admired the way they hardened at his touch as if it were on command.

Yuuri sat up a little and helped pulled his shirt over his head before throwing it somewhere in his room. His upper body was no secret to Victor but he was ready to create new ones with the permission to touch him being granted. Victor kissed his cheek and traveled down to his neck, his collarbone, his shoulder, and every patch of skin in between. He wanted to make sure that he memorized every inch of his skin with the time that he had left. He needed to feel him close to him just as much as he needed to breathe to stay alive.

Yuuri's smaller hand combing through his silver locks only egged him on further. The Japanese man was no different and wanted to memorize Victor's touches and the look on his face as he discovered human love. Although they come from two completely different worlds, they shared so many similarities.

"Hah! Nn..."

Victor took a hard nipple into his mouth, gently nipping at it with his teeth. The grip on his head tightened and shakily released his hair. He could hear Yuuri's heartbeat underneath his head and sucked sweetly on Yuuri's chest. His breathing had become more erratic when he twisted the twin peak with his other hand.

He allowed himself to look up at the boy below him. His eyes were clenched shut and his face looked very much like Yurio's tail with how red it was. His lips were pursed and sometimes opened slightly to release a shaky moan. Victor absolutely loved the way that Yuuri wore bliss on his face and wanted nothing more than to see how it would evolve further.

He kissed the small slope between his chest and for a second felt his heartbeat meet his lips. He trailed down a tan stomach with sweet kisses until he reached the hem of Yuuri's jeans. With nimble fingers, he was able to unbutton and pull the zipper down them before Yuuri took his hands away.

"H-How do you know how to do all this?" he asked. Yuuri had never felt even a mile within what he was feeling in all his life. How was it that someone who wasn't even fully human knew how to do these things to his body to make him melt into a puddle of goo?

"You'd be surprised at the number of people who come to the beach to do things like this when they think no one's around," Victor said simply. He smirked at the darker blush that crept up on Yuuri's cheeks. "What?"

"Y-You watched them?! That's so...I don't understand people sometimes." His innocence was really incredible sometimes.

"It was more like I was minding my own business before people got naked," Victor smiled. He loved these moments when he could joke around with Yuuri.

"I can't belie-hey!"

Victor tried to cut off his little rant by pulling down his pants and the swim trunks he still wore as far as he could with Yuuri still laying down. He sat up a little on his long human legs so that Yuuri could too. "Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

Yuuri looked away from Victor and fiddled with his hands nervously. "No, it's just...you're not as...bare as I am," he muttered. God, this had to be the most embarrassing thing he's ever said to someone in his life.

The silver haired man chuckled and nodded in understanding. He stood up from the bed with chocolate eyes following him. He pulled Yuuri's shirt off his broad shoulders and threw it next to the one Yuuri wore minutes beforehand. With a sly swing of his hips, he undid the zipper and button and let gravity drag them to the ground.

Yuuri's eyes traveled downward until they reached the tuft of silver hair above a rather erect appendage. He turned away in embarrassment before Victor pecked his cheek. "If you wanted to see, why aren't you looking, hm?" he asked in his ear.

"It just doesn't feel real."

"Are you sure about that?"

A gentle hand guided Yuuri's to the area he was too nervous to look at. The skin felt a bit clammy but hot to the touch. His fingers extended and wrapped around the solid length, driving a quick groan from Victor's throat. "How does it feel being human?" Yuuri asked.

"Why don't you tell me?"

Victor sat back on the bed and took Yuuri in his hand. He winced and let out a small yelp that didn't sound human to either of them. He rested his head on Victor's shoulder, feeling inexplicably weaker with the hand on his hard crotch. Victor took the opportunity to plant a kiss in his hair that smelled like the sea. Yuuri nuzzled further into Victor's broad shoulder as he began to slowly stroke his member.

"So, how does it feel, Yuuri?" he asked, drawing out the "u" of his name for a loving effect that made the other shiver.

"I...never felt like this before," he muttered through shaky breaths.

"Neither have I. I didn't think it would feel so hard right here." To emphasize his point, he squeezed the human-exclusive organ at the tip.

"Hah! Don't say things like that, Victor! It's embarrassing." His face was brought up to Victor's in a sweet kiss with Victor's free hand.

"Nothing about you is embarrassing. You're perfect the way you are," he smiled. He brought him into another kiss before pushing the human down onto the mattress again.

"Victor?"

"Let me treat you the way you should be treated, Yuuri."

He shot him an award-winning smile before carefully placing kiss along the Japanese man's neck, collarbone, chest, abs, and hips. As those delicate fingers traced circles around his thighs with hot breaths on his most private area, Yuuri shot up into a sitting position.

"Yuuri? Are yo- woah!"

This time, it was Victor's back who met the firm mattress. Yuuri settled himself between Victor's lean human legs with a determined look on his ruby red face. "Since you're like this, why not let me make you feel human?"

Their gazes firmly held each other with mixed expressions of shock, amazement, and curiosity. Yuuri gulped as Victor showed him his trademark loving smile. "I can't wait," he whispered his confirmation.

Yuuri nodded and cautiously leaned over to meet their lips. This kiss was feather light, much like how Victor would kiss him to grant him the ability to breathe underwater. Victor snaked a hand through the ruffled black hair to deepen it, bringing moans out of both their throats. Yuuri pulled back and kissed down his neck, lightly lapping at the salty skin. He tasted so unique, so much like the sea. It made him wonder what he tasted like when the other placed kisses all over his upper body.

His hands set the trail on his abdomen, relishing in the smooth skin he had and the warmth radiating off of him. His kisses made a line down the center of his stomach until his firm member came into view. If Yuuri's face could get redder, it would have in that moment. No one had ever been that close to his own penis, let alone him being near someone else's.

Any nervousness he felt slowly faded as he gripped the shaft once more. He stroked lightly around the base before gaining the courage to take longer strokes. Victor's breathing hitched as Yuuri became bolder with his movements. He gave him a light smile that made Yuuri's fears melt away.

The Japanese man gulped before bringing the tip of his member to his mouth. At first, he placed a light kiss at the tip. He pulled back and a trail of pre-cum connected the two men. He lapped it up with his slick tongue, tasting the salty liquid. It was warm and sticky and nothing he had ever tasted could compare.

Something about it had an addicting quality and made him want to taste it more.

Yuuri's small tongue darted out and tasted the tip. He slid it between the slit to taste more of Victor's fluid. The hand that was on the base twisted around the hard organ, giving off a separate pleasurable sensation. Once he covered the tip in his saliva, Yuuri took the rest of Victor into his mouth up until his lips met his hand at the base.

Victor released a gasp he had been holding in for a while and grabbed a handful of his hair. His back arched off the bed and his head was thrown back in the mattress to the extent that his neck started to ache. His breathing was much more rapid like he just finished running a marathon. "Y-Yuuri," he whispered. If said man wasn't paying attention, the sound of his name could have easily been masked as another exhalation.

Hearing how the man was gasping beneath him made him feel powerful like he was actually doing something right. He smiled around the cock in his mouth and took him in deeper, feeling the tip hit the back of his throat. In that moment, he had never been more grateful for not having an active gag reflex. His tongue scraped the underside of his dick, acting like a soft wet cushion as it glided in and out of his person.

"Y-Yuuri, something is..." His voice trailed off into heavy moans and the grip around Yuuri's hair tightened. He was too intoxicated to think about the pain he could be eliciting, but the groan in Yuuri's throat said otherwise. He hollowed out his cheeks as much as possible and shut his eyes when Victor arched his back off the bed to thrust into his mouth one last time before hot liquid shot into his throat.

Victor's haggard breathing filled the room and the bed shifted in time with his heaving ribs. Yuuri released Victor with a soft pop and caught a glimpse of the cum that briefly connected them. He swallowed down the thick substance in a few gulps. He knew it would be salty and bitter, but there was something attractive about the taste.

It was possibly due to the attractive man it came from.

Once his breathing was more stable, Victor sat up and brought them into a quick kiss. He pulled back and had a sour expression. "Why do you taste different all of a sudden?" he asked.

Yuuri chuckled and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "That's what you taste like," he said simply. The blush returned slightly from how nonchalant he described his reproductive fluid.

"Humans are weird."

"Like you're the one to talk," Yuuri retorted.

The two broke into giggles and collapsed on the bed in a tangle of limbs. "I still have yet to know what you taste like," Victor cooed.

Yuuri's face paled slightly and retracted his gaze from the mermaid-turned-human. "Would you...I mean, if you want to, we could..."

Victor smiled at how cute he was being. He knew this was a big deal to humans and Yuuri had never done anything like this before, but he wanted to seize the moment while they still had this time together. A pale finger traced his cheek and found itself on a tanned chin. "I would love that, Yuuri. You don't have to be afraid, okay?"

Yuuri met his eyes with a glassy gaze. Never in his wildest dreams did he think he would find someone to be in this position with. He never thought he would find someone who loved him so much and made him comfortable with something he was embarrassed about.

He never thought he would crave the presence of another person as much as he did now.

Yuuri wrapped his slender arms around Victor's neck and brought him into a deep kiss. It was slow but full of passion, much like how they would kiss whenever he visited the coral garden. He could almost feel the ocean waves move around him and hear the sounds of sea life. The simplicity of this moment made it feel like one of the greatest in his life.

Rolling onto his back, Yuuri let go of Victor and positioned his arms to his sides. In those blue eyes, he looked like an angel straight from Heaven itself. He slithered down so that he was on the edge of the bed with Yuuri's lower body waiting at full attention. Victor was tired of waiting and without much warning, he enclosed Yuuri's member in his mouth.

The Japanese man squealed and arched off the bed. He had no idea what this would feel like and was utterly surprised at the soft and warm sensation Victor's tongue was giving him. Was this how Victor felt moments ago when their positions were switched? The feeling must have been much more impactful on him since he never had this body part before.

His tongue felt skilled as it swirled around his shaft even though he knew this was a first for the both of them. Being Victor's first and having Victor be his first made his heart swell with both pride and love. He felt nothing more than what was in this world, what was on this bed at this moment.

Sky blue eyes looked at the sight of a panting Yuuri which egged him on to bring him closer to the edge. With a long finger, he probed at his entrance, trying to push in through the contracting skin.

"V-Victor!" Yuuri yelped as he felt the hand on his hole.

Said man released the cock in his mouth to place sweet kisses on his thighs. "Trust me, okay? I promise I won't hurt you," he cooed lovingly.

"I-I don't think you know how this works," Yuuri chimed with a sharp breath. Turning his upper body, he reaches toward the nightstand next to his bed where his glasses lied and rummaged through the top drawer. He pulls out a bottle of hand lotion and passes it to Victor.

"You're more prepared for this than you're letting up, huh?" he smirked.

"Shut up, it's not like that. My skin gets really dried out sometimes," Yuuri muttered with an angry blush. He hated being painted as such a pervert, but the playfulness behind the conversation when something so intimate was about happen made him feel more comfortable with the act.

Victor popped the cap and squeezed the cool, white lotion onto his fingers. He took Yuuri's penis back into his mouth and was rewarded with the Japanese man throwing his head back into the mattress and releasing a strangled groan. With his newly slick fingers, he entered Yuuri's tight hole with ease. Yuuri snake breathed in pain but the tongue swirling around his head was enough to combat the displeasure.

Victor admired the suction and squeezes of Yuuri's inner walls and did his best to make his insides wet all over. He felt something hit the tip of his fingers and on cue, Yuuri's cries were more erratic. Sadistically, he pulled himself off the human's person. Yuuri whined and opened his clenched eyes to see Victor coaxing his cock with the lotion. His hand moved clumsily over himself, not exactly sure what to do with this newfound pleasure.

In the meantime, Yuuri used what little strength he had left to hold his arms out towards his love. "Please, hurry," he whispered.

Cerulean eyes widened and softened in a moment as Victor lined himself up against his lover and pushed in slowly. It was tighter than he thought it would be and he struggled to push the tip in. The two tried their best to synchronize their breathing and the tip soon pushed past the ring of muscles. The rest of his dick slid in nicely against the constricting muscular walls.

Victor leaned over the smaller body and Yuuri's extended arms pulled him into an embrace. His fingernails raked Victor's back, but the mermaid did not notice. His lower body was on fire with a passion he could never even dream off. Yuuri felt the same and swayed his hips slightly to signal Victor he was okay.

Pale hips moved slightly, not pulling out too far in fear of leaving the pleasurable heat. They quickly found a rhythm of moving back and forward at the same time in order to go as deep as humanly (or inhumanly, in this case) as possible. Moans filled the small bedroom as well as the sound of skin slapping against skin as Victor's thrusts became more and more harsh.

"Hah...Victor..." Yuuri moaned as his body squirmed below. His exposed cock was leaking onto both of their stomachs and Victor picked up his pace as well as the weeping member. His body went into auto-pilot as his hand and hips moved past the rhythm that was set some time ago.

Yuuri yanked uncharacteristically on silver locks and smashed their lips together. Teeth clanked and tongues fought bravely. Neither one tried to maintain their composure with the oncoming release.

"Y-Yuuri..." He pulled back from the kiss for air and pounded into the human.

They kissed once more and moans were lost as they saw the stars behind their eyes and white splayed across their chests and deep inside Yuuri.

The couple panted and rolled onto the now-soiled bed. Limbs tangled around the sheets and one another. They exerted too much strength in rolling over to be able to look at each other rather than the ceiling.

Eyes met and while one would find the stare embarrassing after such an activity, the two smiled and shared one last blissful kiss before exhaustion took over them both.

* * *

Although he was the only one to awaken in bed the next morning, he felt warm. His heart was beating at a pace that made him feel feather-light, like he could take on anything the world would throw at him. His body ached from the activities of the previous night, but he felt like he coud do absolutely everything in spite of that. He was still drowsy from being asleep moments ago, but he was ready to attack the day.

Yuuri rolled over and retrieved his glasses from the nightstand. His hips screamed at the motion, but he persevered. He found that the blue specs were wet and looked at the table. A smeared heart was drawn by a finger dipped in the cup of water Yuuri usually kept by his bed if he needed a drink during the night. He smiled at the gesture and knew exactly who left it. "Such a dork," he thought to himself.

Without wasting another second of his morning, the human swung his legs over the bed (as best as he could in his condition, anyway) and went to find his clothes that were haphazardly thrown on the floor. Victor must have picked them back up because he found them on his desk. He threw them in the hamper and took out a fresh set of clothes and his beach bag.

It was early in the day and no one was up as far as Yuuri saw. He crept out of the inn just in time to see the sun rise over Hasetsu's waters. He strolled down the familiar roads he grew up in until he found his way to the dock. Maybe Victor would be waiting for him already. He was always so eccentric and full of surprises. Yuuri just hoped Yakov didn't catch him with a different lower body.

The ground shifted below him as he changed his walking direction to the sand. He could see the dock and a person sitting on the edge.

It had to be him.

"Victor!" Yuuri called out. He tried to run and ended up speed walking the rest of the way to the wooden bridge. He could tell his body was getting more used to the feeling as he kept moving even though he wanted nothing more than to lay down.

The person's head perked up and he noticed it was a shining blonde instead of luscious silver. "Yurio?"

He made it to the dock and walked closer to the mermaid who made no move to acknowledge him. Yuuri leaned down to get a look at his face and saw that the red tint almost matched his tail. "Is everything al-mmph!"

In a flash, Yuri crashed their lips together and forcefully pushed the human into the water. He was used to this feeling when Victor did it as a joke, but with Yuri, there was obvious malice behind it. It was rough and hurt with the smacking-like contact.

"What's going o-" A small hand wrapped around his wrist in a painful grip without a second thought. Even though he was able to breath with the help of Yuri's kiss, he still coughed and the sudden change in atmosphere. "Yurio, why-"

"Shut up! Don't say anything!" he yelled. Those green eyes never met his and Yuuri didn't have an inkling about what brought this on. Yuri's tail moved at a pace the human had never seen before and he held on the thinner wrist before him.

"Where's Victor?" Yuuri asked through the waves rushing past his body with each stroke of the mermaid tail. The human felt nails dig into his skin and winced. He still couldn't read Yuri's face and each second spent in silence began to gnaw away in his mind. What exactly was going on?

Soon enough, the cave the mermaids resided in came into view and Yuuri saw some figures he never met. Outside, a male mermaid that looked to be about Victor's age with black hair and a deep purple tail had his arms draped around a female mermaid with short red hair and black shells covering her ample breasts. Her tail was of the same color and trembled along with her small and delicate-looking form as if she were scared or crying.

"Yuri? What are you thinking, bringing a human here?!" the male yelled. The woman looked at the other of her kind and brought him into a desperate hug.

"Georgi, this is the human. He should know about this," Yuri said sternly through what Yuuri could assume was clutched teeth.

"It's his fault this is happening!" Georgi yelled back.

"He couldn't have known! Stop it!" the woman yelled. She turned her attention to Yuuri and clasped his hands in her smaller ones. "I wish we could have met in better circumstances. I'm Mila an-"

"Mila, don't. Just show him what he needs to see," Yuri said. With his hands released, Yuuri was able to see such a painstaking expression on the teen. His eyes were bloodshot and even underwater he could tell that tears threatened to escape. He had known Yurio to be full of pride, so seeing him like this was quite a setback. Only something truly awful could have brought this sort of emotion out of him.

"What's going on?" Yuuri asked in a low whisper. The secrecy was beginning to get under his tan skin and it boiled up under his anxiety. These mermaids were accounted for, but not the one he wanted to see, not the one he needed to see. "Where's Victor?"

A loud groan emerged from the cave as well as a clatter of glass. "Let's go," Mila said. She dragged the human inside and the other mermaids followed without hesitation. The path was linear and led to an opening with glowing plants along the wall for lighting. In the center of the room, there was a flat rock similar to what Yuuri and Victor would lay on in the coral garden.

This time, Victor laid there clutching his side with red floating around him spawning from a large cut on his abdomen.

"Dammit, the bleeding isn't stopping!" a balding mermaid yelled. He swam hastily around the room looking through bookcase after bookcase for something to help the blue mermaid. His attention landed on the group before him in his search around the room. "What are yo- Is that a human?! Is he the one who caused this?!" he yelled. "Why did you bring him here?!"

Victor's head turned away from the yelling mermaid and a light blue eye slowly opened. "Y-Yuuri?" he muttered with an added hiss of pain.

"I'm here!" Yuuri swam forward and grasped Victor's free hand. Victor smiled softly through the painful expression that was plastered on his once flawless face.

"You shouldn't be! This is why we stay away from humans! They're dangerous! Take him out of here!"

"Yakov, let him stay," Mila pleaded.

"I agree with Yakov. If it wasn't for him, Victor wouldn't be dying!" Georgi yelled.

The human shuddered at his claim. This was all happening way too fast. Just some hours ago, Victor was happy in his bed as a human and now he was lying here with a deep gash on his side. What happened in the time between? Why was this happening? Was it really his fault? What happened?

"Yuuri, I'll be fine, I promise," Victor managed to say. His hand caressed the side of his face and he leaned into the touch, afraid that it would be the last time he would feel it. His hands felt colder than usual from the loss of blood. Was he really dying?

"Please, be okay. I can't lose you," Yuuri cried. His tears spilled over and meshed with the seawater surrounding his form.

"I will with you here. I love you."

"I...I love you, too."

"Get him out of here!" Yakov yelled.

Two arms grasped and pulled Yuuri away from Victor, both of their hands desperate to catch the other but falling centimeters too short.

"No!"

His scream echoed throughout the cave as Georgi and Yuri carried him back to the surface.

* * *

"It was a human, but it wasn't you."

"But what happened, Yuri?"

The blonde turned at the proper use of his name. It hurt them both to hear the name that Victor decided upon in their presence not long ago. He looked out at the pink sky that was waking up from its daily slumber. It was a signal of rebirth, a start of a new day, but neither thought of it as such.

"From what I understand, he stole one of Yakov's potions to become human, right?" Yuuri nodded. "He came back late last night. I was awake when he entered the water. He was a mermaid at that point. He had such a stupid smile on his face. I mean, he always does, but this was different. Something really good must have happened to him, but then..."

"And then what?" Yuuri asked in a breath after Yuri stopped. His voice trembled too much to pass off as anything but crying, but he managed to hold his own.

"Behind him, there was a spear or something. It had to be a fisherman, but I haven't seen any of them at that time of night. He fell and I brought him back to the cave. After that, Mila and Georgi came and Mila told me to get you, so I waited for you and...you know the rest."

The two didn't have the strength to make eye contact and just stared out at the ocean. To a passerby, the waves looked just like that - water. But, this human and this half-human knew there was a world underneath anyone else couldn't dare comprehend. In those depths lied the creature, the person that Yuuri cared the most about in between life and death.

He desperately hoped Victor would come out strong. He always was a terrible joker.

A low hiss sounded beside Yuuri and his neck ached when it turned to the side from being stationary for so long. Blonde locks covered his face, but they did not conceal the tears that slipped off his cheeks and onto his tail. "Why? I thought humans were good after all. You weren't like that, so why was he? Why? Why did this happen?"

Yuri's arms clutched his side and he doubled over into himself. Yuuri found himself to be numb and didn't share in the tearfest, but he laid a hand on those shimmering locks. He needed comfort just as much as Yuuri did, maybe even more since they were the same race and raised like brothers. He couldn't do much, but it was better than doing nothing.

"There is more to this world than we'll ever know, I guess."

* * *

It wasn't long after that the redheaded female popped up from the ocean. No words were needed. Her eyes were bloodshot and her tan face held a look of despair and loss. She placed a hand on his knees and whispered condolences that fell on deaf ears.

Yuuri was dense at time, but he knew exactly what this meant.

* * *

"Hah..."

He sighed. He always did whenever he came to the beach. It wasn't a sigh of relief or a sigh full of grieve. He just sighed for the sake of oxygen and self-preservation. It just felt right to do so.

He looked out at the ocean with his hands casually in his pants pockets. The waves were low as well as the sun. It should be setting anytime now and bring on the darkness of the night.

Was he always this cynical? Another sigh left his lips and his feet carried him across the way.

He didn't try to avoid the beach of Hasetsu, but he didn't actively seek it out either. His trips lessened from every day to maybe once a week or once a month - he wasn't keeping track. Still, whenever he passed, he found himself sitting on the dock that's been there since he was a child with his bare feet in the water. Another sigh escaped.

No else was on the beach, but he heard a splash from behind him. He was on a beach, so of course he would hear a splash - that was nothing new. But, there was something calling him in that small pitter-patter of droplets, something familiar.

Turning over his shoulder, Yuuri saw a small puddle in the shape of a smiley face and a heart reflected in the setting sun's rays.

"What th-"

Another splash resounded behind him and he turned in a quicker fashion. The waves past the dock were disturbed as if something dove in or swam to the surface.

He didn't catch what it was specifically, but whatever it wore a tuft of illuminating and unforgettable silver.

* * *

 **Author's Note**

 **Four months...I have never spent so much time on a oneshot, but I am so happy with the way that this turned out. YOI fanfics are what I live for and after seeing all the different AUs people have put together, I wanted to try my hand at one and a tragedy on top of it cuz why not? I sincerely hope that you enjoyed this story and that it wasn't too painfully long, but splitting it up into chapters seemed to be a crime to me :P Anyway, thank you all for reading up to this point and maybe I'll write a sequel or something one day. Who knows? ;)**

 **Until next time, sayonara~!**


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